Overview

• Baptist Beaumont Hospital in Texas was forced to evacuate patients on Thursday due to a lack of water at its facilities. Nearly 200 patients from the hospital were being transferred by air to other acute care facilities in the area.
• The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Thursday it plans to spend $10 million on advertising for the upcoming Obamacare open enrollment period that starts in November, a sharp cut from the $100 million spent last year.
• Obesity remains a public health epidemic in the United States. No state’s obesity rate was more than 25 percent as of 2000. But for 2016, the report found adult obesity rates hit more than 35 percent in five states, followed by 30 percent in 25 states and 25 percent in 46 states.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 4th of  September 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/08/31/texas-hospital-forced-to-evacuate-patients-due-to-lack-water.html

A Texas hospital was forced to evacuate patients on Thursday due to a lack of water at its facilities. Nearly two hundred patients at Baptist Beaumont Hospital were being transferred by air to other acute care facilities in the area. Baptist Beaumont Hospital spokeswoman Mary Poole said the hospital’s main pumping station lost service, meaning the acute care center no longer has access to potable water. Poole said the hospital is working with HCA Healthcare to move patients to nearby facilities. A statement posted on the hospital’s website said emergency services will also be suspended.

The statement said ‘’Due to the citywide lack of services we have no other alternatives but to discontinue all services which will unfortunately include emergency services. This is being done immediately.” City manager Kyle Hayes said that it’s unclear when they will be able to provide residents with potable water, and that continually rising flood waters on the Neches River are covering the pumps that serve as a primary source for drinking water.
…..
Officials are attempting to get bottled water to residents as quickly as possible.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-idUSKCN1BB30Y

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Thursday it plans to spend ten million dollars on advertising for the upcoming Obamacare open enrollment period that starts in November, a sharp cut from the one hundred million dollars spent last year. The agency also said it will cut funding for so-called navigators, who help people enroll in Obamacare health insurance plans, by forty one percent to thirty six point eight million dollars. Thursday’s announcement was the latest move by the Trump administration to undercut the two thousand ten Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced it would back off enforcement of the so-called individual mandate, the requirement that everyone purchase health insurance or else pay a fine. The lack of enforcement has been a top concern among U.S. health insurers.
Trump has also repeatedly threatened to cut off billions of dollars of payments to insurers that they are guaranteed under the law, creating uncertainty and chaos in the individual insurance market. Democrats swiftly criticized the administration’s decision to scale back advertising.

http://health.usnews.com/wellness/health-buzz/articles/2017-08-31/the-11-most-obese-states-in-america

Obesity remains a public health epidemic in the United States. But the good news is that adult obesity rates appear to be leveling off, though the progress won’t necessarily last forever.
That’s according to The State of Obesity, an annual report from nonprofit Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, out now. No state’s obesity rate was more than twenty five percent as of two thousand. But for two thousand sixteen, the report found adult obesity rates hit more than thirty five percent in five states, followed by thirty percent in twenty five states and twenty five percent in forty six states. Obesity rates ticked up in four states this past year – Colorado, Minnesota, Washington and West Virginia. It ticked down in Kansas while remaining unchanged across the other states in the U.S. The report covering the year two thousand fifteen, out last year, was the first time in the history of the report that found declines in adult obesity rates at all. For context, obesity rates increased in thirty one states in two thousand six and in sixteen states in two thousand ten.

Here are top eleven most obese states: Number one) West Virginia – thirty seven point seven percent; Number two); Mississippi- thirty seven point three percent; tie at number three are Alabama and Arkansas- thirty five point seven percent; Number five) Louisiana- thirty five point five percent; Number six) Tennessee – thirty five point eight; Number seven) Kentucky- thirty five point two; Number eight) Texas- thirty three point seven percent; Number nine) Oklahoma- thirty two point eight; tie at number ten are Indiana and Michigan – thirty two point five percent.  

The obesity crisis is also expensive, adding up to more than one hundred billion dollars in health care costs every year. People who are moderately obese have double the chance of those with a healthy weight of being prescribed medicine to treat health conditions, according to the report. Additionally, severely obese patients who visit emergency rooms with chest pains face forty one percent higher costs.

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